I haven’t got a picture of the big thing that we did on Saturday last week, but it was H’s 11 plus exam. The morning was taken up with that. I have no idea really how he did. No disasters I don’t think (not like the mock he did where he missed a section and realised near the end, but by then all this answers in the wrong spaces), but 10-year-old boys don’t give very good feedback I find. It was harder in parts than his mocks and easier in parts, so I think that means it was about what he expected overall.

The rest of the weekend was spent visiting places that were open either specially or for free as part of the Heritage Open Days weekend. Mum visited a convent in Handsworth that designed by Pugin (think Houses of Parliament) whilst H was doing his exam. We went together to Blakesley Hall in Yardley, which is a historic house owned by the council and surrounded by lots of semis these days which seems a bit odd. I think Yardley was once a village, but it got swallowed up by Birmingham as it grew.

This week we did a photo shoot after school (it’s nice that the light is still good enough for that at the moment). This was for some work we were doing for a new book called Where’s Wookiee?2 (think Where’s Wally? with a Star Wars theme). I loved this shot of a boy and his cat: Bracken loves children and has a real soft spot for H.

I’ve had a busy week workwise and some of the work has been quite involved with lots of social media requirements, as well as the blog posts. I’ve had quite a few pictures to take too. I do wonder what people walking past must think when I have it all set up for a shoot in my dining room. It’s nice to be busy though and I’d rather have lots on.

A week of two halves really for us. H didn’t go back to school till Wednesday, so the first half of the week was quite relaxed and the second half was back to the school routine.

So we had a quiet weekend at home as we’d had a busy week last week. There was a lot of reading going on and some toy testing – at the top for a game called King Pong and below for Awesome Little Green Men. Monday saw us catching up with friends. H had a full on day: he went to his oldest friend’s house in the morning and in the afternoon he had another friend round to play. I had planned a short trip out on Tuesday, but we thought again when we saw the rain. Instead we went to the library and H spent a lot of time reading.

Back to school on Wednesday. H was quite resigned to going back. He was looking forward to spending time with friends and he gets to be a buddy for one of the Reception children now he is in Year 6 – he’s looking forward to that. He was quite clear he wasn’t going to be applying for one of the many ‘jobs’ available to Year 6 children though.

I’ve had a few days to get back into the school routine. It will all step up a gear next week as H starts scouts (we had a week off that this week). Swimming was back on this week, so we were back to that anyway. H seems to be quite happy with his new teacher at school and he is looking forward to their literacy project which is mystery writing.

It’s been a very difficult week for reasons I don’t want to talk about here, but we have been dealt quite a blow and it will take some coming to terms with. That said, there were some things to enjoy. At the weekend the sun shone despite it being a bank holiday. I’d have normally felt the need to get on with some gardening, but because I am still suffering from tennis elbow, I forced myself to ignore all the bits that needed snipping and weeds that needed pulling out, and just sat in the garden and enjoyed it. The tennis elbow is a bit frustrating, but it has made me slow down a bit, which can be good sometimes.

We made a trip out to the National Sea Life Centre, which we visit quite a lot. This time they had an activity on themed around H’s favourite TV programme: The Deep. He really liked that and he’s very knowledgeable about sea creatures anyway.

I wasn’t the only one enjoying the bank holiday weather in the garden – Bracken thought it was nice too.

We went out for the day to Liverpool as part of a blog project we are doing. It was H’s choice of destination and I was happy to go as it had been more than 20 years since I went. Lots to do there too and we barely scratched the surface, but we did visit the Museum of Liverpool and the Maritime Museum.

Friday night saw us hitting the Birmingham Balti Triangle for a meal out. I took my mum and H with me. Mum found some pears that had fallen off a tree in front of an office building. She can never resist the opportunity to use some windfalls, so we ended up bringing a bag of pears home with us.

Last weekend we had Sunday lunch at my brother’s rather than my parent’s. In some ways this worked better as it was more child friendly. H and his cousins bounced around like mad things on the trampoline. Later they did some imaginary role play, watched a film and then it was onto the hot wheels.

There was some modeling going on in the garden when H tried out these new clothes from Nutmeg at Morrisons. He’s a dab hand at this modelling lark these days.

We have spent more time at home this summer than ever before, but I insisted we go for a day out to Stratford (upon Avon) this week. We had a lovely day and going on the train made the whole thing very relaxed, plus it took a similar travel time. We explored two of the Shakespeare properties: Hall’s Croft (Shakespeare’s daughter’s house) and New Place (gardens on the site of Shakespeare’s house). H enjoys Shakespeare, so it was good to find out a bit more about him and find some new abridged Shakespeares for him to try, including a manga version which looks fun. Lunch was a bit of treat too as we went to Zizzis. I’ll like to go back to Stratford again before the summer is out, but we are running out of time.

A lovely evening out for me this week seeing Miss Saigon at the Birmingham Hippodrome with a chance to experience their specially themed menu. Good too to catch up with some blogging friends while we were there.

A visit on Friday to see my grandmother with H and my mum. Grandma will be 97 this month and we try to visit her most school holidays. The traffic was horrendous on the M5 though – should have thought about it being a bank holiday weekend.

About me

I’m Erica Price and I run Nine to Three Thirty. I’m a blogger based in Birmingham in the West Midlands. Nine to Three Thirty focuses on topics that interest or concern parents of school age children. Learn more